Podcast
Smart Friends
Hosted by Eric Jorgenson · EN
Casual conversations with founders, technologists, investors, and artists about building a brighter future, together. Welcome to our digital living room.
With science, technology and entrepreneurship we can *continue* to create unfathomable leaps in quality of life. We show you how to find, apply, build, and invest in technologies to change your life and the world.
When we have smart friends, we do smart things. When we do smart things, we save the world.
No matter who, where, or when you are – now you have smart friends, too.
Outside this podcast, I’m the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Anthology of Balaji. Connect at ejorgenson.com
Laugh and learn with people like Balaji Srinivasan, Naval Ravikant, Andrew Wilkinson, Austen Allred, David Senra, Josh Storrs Hall, Ashley Rindsberg, Zach Pettet, Bret Kugelmass, Omar ElNaggar, Grace Guo, Brett Kopf, Max Olson, Chris Williamson, Shane Mac, Tim Hwang, David Perell, Jason Hitchcock, Natalia Karayaneva, Sebastian Marshall, Taylor Pearson, Mitchell Baldridge and more.
Join conversations with my partners in early-stage tech investing, Bo Fishback and Al Doan. Our Rolling Fun Episodes cover our investments and escapades as angel investors and startup helpers. We invest in startups creating the *next* industrial revolution. Learn more at rolling.fun
“Surround yourself with people who remind you more of your future than of your past.”
26episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
#102 The Next Renaissance, AI Reality vs Hype, and a Movement of Hope with Zack Kass
2w ago01:19:29Tap to summarizeTopics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:40) - Being the “tech for middle America” translator (00:06:00) - Who are your heroes? (00:13:40) - Zack’s unique approach to AI (00:57:35) - The market for identity transformation (01:11:08) - Writing the next renaissance (01:15:31) - Using AI in the writing process (01:18:25) - Final thoughts Links: The Next Renaissance by Zack Kass - https://a.co/d/07VwLrg4 Zack’s website - https://www.zackkass.com/ To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important. Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.
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The Book of Elon - Part 4
Apr 701:35:14Tap to summarizeWelcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success. This is Part 1 of 4. I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website. I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us. If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project: Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram Join the email list at ejorgenson.com And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot. I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.
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The Book of Elon - Part 3
Apr 701:44:13Tap to summarizeWelcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success. This is Part 3 of 4. I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website. I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us. If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project: Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram Join the email list at ejorgenson.com And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot. I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.
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The Book of Elon - Part 2
Apr 701:10:27Tap to summarizeWelcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success. This is Part 2 of 4. I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website. I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us. If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project: Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram Join the email list at ejorgenson.com And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot. I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.
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The Book of Elon - Part 1
Apr 701:06:27Tap to summarizeWelcome to the free audiobook of The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success. This is Part 1 of 4. I’ve made all of my books available for free. This is the third book I’ve published, and like the others, it’s available in all formats—PDF, EPUB, and audio—and in dozens of languages. More than 5 million people have read the free version of The Almanack of Naval, and I wanted to do the same here. You can find the full book and bonus content on my website. I do this because I believe that if you can’t comfortably afford the Kindle version or an Audible credit, then you should have access to this information even more. I want to personally gift it to you. I believe the ideas in this book can benefit anyone—and the more people who have good ideas in their heads, the better the future will be for all of us. If you’re enjoying the free version, here are a few no-cost ways to support me and this project: Leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or Audible—these make a huge difference and help new readers discover the book Subscribe to my podcast Smart Friends, and follow along on YouTube, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram Join the email list at ejorgenson.com And most importantly, if this resonates with you, share it directly with a friend. A quick text or email recommendation is how most people decide what to read—and it means a lot. I appreciate you listening, reading, and helping spread the word.
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The Book of Elon launches today
Mar 2400:08:51Tap to summarizeThe Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success is now available! “All of Elon Musk’s Most Useful Ideas, In His Own Words.” I’ve invested five years of effort and tens of thousands of dollars into making this book as useful as possible for you. Order the book now on Amazon: Kindle: https://amzn.to/4uEf0pO Paperback: https://amzn.to/47avSuh Hardcover: https://amzn.to/4by5VWL Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Book-of-Elon-Audiobook/B0G3B4SJPQ To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend
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My Conversation with Naval Megasode
Feb 2403:35:01Tap to summarizeIt's been five years since the Almanack of Naval Ravikant was published. I spent the day with Naval expanding on key ideas from the book. We recorded hours of that conversation to share with you. You can purchase the new expanded edition with nearly 4 hours of new material on Audible here: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant-Audiobook/B0FBCP1JWJ Chapters: 00:00 - Building Wealth 37:49 - Building Judgement 01:12:30 - Learning Happiness 02:15:17 - Saving Yourself 02:50:17 - Philosophy To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend
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#101 Tesla War Stories, Self-Driving at Waymo, and Building the Salesforce of BOM (Spencer Penn of LightSource)
Feb 301:01:17Tap to summarizeTopics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:43) - Heroes and inspirations (00:07:14) - The rise of Chinese electric vehicles (00:12:13) - The Tesla experience (00:31:04) - Tesla's rapid development and industry impact (00:32:54) - The culture of speed and frugality at Tesla (00:34:10) - Elon's leadership and pressure tactics (00:37:22) - Transitioning from Tesla to Waymo (00:39:43) - Waymo's organizational structure and challenges (00:43:35) - The future of autonomous vehicles (00:54:34) - Founding Light Source and addressing procurement issues (01:00:23) - Conclusion and final thoughts Links: LightSource - https://lightsource.ai/ Spencer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spenpenn/ Preorder the Book of Elon - https://a.co/d/02huhEee To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Quotes from Spencer: “It was the most fun I never want to have again.” (Describing his time at Tesla during the Model 3 production ramp) “The Model 3 seat feel is attuned directly to Elon’s butt.” “I’m not an Elon fanboy, but I’m also not a critic. I’m an optimist.” “Speed wins. After seeing both Tesla and Waymo, that’s my belief.” “We were the underdog. Eventually, it does end up feeling like you’re on the winning team.” “You couldn’t go into a meeting with Elon and show up empty-handed.” “This opportunity we’re pursuing at LightSource should have disappeared 20 years ago.” “ERP is the finance system of record. What’s Salesforce in reverse? That’s LightSource.” “The thing that surprised me: every company still runs procurement on spreadsheets and email.” “Tesla built their own ERP system from scratch. That’s not normal.” “There are things that are just core to the P&L of every business… and yet completely orphaned in the tech stack.”
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#100 Interviewing Your Parents, Writing Through Fear, and One's First Book (Kyle Thiermann)
Jan 2001:25:28Tap to summarizeTitle: #100 Interviewing Your Parents, Writing Through Fear, and One's First Book (Kyle Thiermann) Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:47) - The birth of a book: from idea to reality (00:04:01) - A pandemic epiphany: interviewing my dad (00:07:51) - The journey of a professional surfer and journalist (00:10:48) - Writing a book: challenges and insights (00:17:04) - The emotional depth of interviewing parents (00:22:40) - Balancing humor and vulnerability in writing (00:34:39) - Creating unique value in a book (00:41:59) - The power of a good title (00:44:31) - The importance of a book title (00:49:10) - Balancing writing and marketing (00:57:56) - Long-term marketing approach (01:10:16) - Navigating the publishing process (01:19:45) - Unexpected outcomes and reflections Links: One Last Question Before You Go - https://amzn.to/49JVWg2 Scribe Media - https://scribemedia.com/ To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Quotes from Kyle: “The interview process can be a kind of empathy drug.” “Write as if you are already dead.” “The ideas that won't go away are the ones worth chasing.” “I wanted to write the book that only I could write.” “Most people live their lives being rewarded for having the right answer, not the right question.” “Books are like malaria nets—people use them in ways you never expect.” “If I tell you to interview your parents, I have to show you what happened when I did.” “Marketing is an act of consideration and generosity.” “A lot of how-to books could be a one-page PDF. I refused to do that.” “Live events aren’t about selling books. They’re about making you feel like a winner as an author.” “The best advertisers I know create a mood shift immediately.” “Make fun of yourself. That’s how you earn the right to critique others.”
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#099 Jonathan Swanson: Scaling Thumbtack, 10x Delegation, and Designing an Ideal Life
Jan 600:56:21Tap to summarizeTopics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:30) - Who are your heroes? (00:09:26) - The infancy and evolution of Athena (00:15:12) - Inflection points (00:18:14) - Jonathan’s reasoning for going public with interviews (00:20:08) - How do you pick countries to work in? (00:22:41) - Who is the core Athena customer? (00:28:09) - Jonathan’s 6 EAs (00:32:13) - Surprising things Jonathan’s delegated (00:35:42) - Broadening your scope of what’s possible with assistants (00:42:05) - A day in the life with multiple EAs (00:45:41) - Delegation within EAs (00:50:31) - Family dynamics with EAs (00:54:07) - The 2050 version of Athena Links: Athena - https://www.athena.com/ Rolling Fun — https://www.rolling.fun To support the costs of producing this podcast: >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! We discuss: How Jonathan developed calm under extreme startup pressure Athena’s evolution from side hustle to billion-dollar vision Why great delegation is a skill, not magic Surprising personal and family delegation use cases Combining humans and AI for exponential leverage Quotes from Jonathan: “My mind is an inner citadel. I’ve got a good mind, a wife that loves me, and everything else is gravy.” “I started Athena with the sole goal of generating income for my wife and I to live off of.” “The vision of Athena is the best human assistants powered by the best AI.” “Humans are good UX. We’ve evolved to like humans.” “You don’t build the first Tesla without a steering wheel.” “We're building something that watches assistants work, not to replace them, but to augment them.” “Delegation is a J-curve. It's slower at first, but compounds.” “The cardinal sin of delegation is thinking, ‘It’s faster to do it myself.’” “You can think of an assistant as a cognitive prosthesis.” “Belief is the first limiter. Most people don’t believe time freedom is possible.” “Ask yourself: If I had a hundred more hours a week, what would I do?” Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important. Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start.
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